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06 - Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey · Classic Adventure Books Library

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  Chapter six, my despair upon finding the pipe of the funnel too small for
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  my body, A ray of hope breaks in upon me, full account of
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  how I succeeded in entering the pipe of the funnel, my passage through it,
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  Bulgar's timely aid, the Marble Highway, and some curious things concerning the
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  entrance to the world within a world. The rocky sides of Polyphemus's funnel were
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  apparently as well polished as those of any tin funnel that I had ever seen
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  hanging in the kitchen of Castle Trump. So, making fast my tackle and
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  taking Bulgar in my arms away, we went, sliding down the side,
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  with the line passed under my arm. For safety's sake. It was nearly
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  a hundred feet to the bottom, for I had measured off the full length
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  of my line before I had come to the apex of this gigantic cone,
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  And, not caring to tumble headlong down its pipe, I proceeded to light
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  a taper and look about me, Ah, dear friends, I can feel
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  that shudder. Now, so terrible was it? And what wonder too?
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  For A glance at the pipe of the funnel told me that it was too
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  small to let my body pass through the agonizing thought flashed through my mind that
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  I had committed a terrible error, that I had mistaken some vast pit for
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  the giants well, that I had thrown bulgars in my own life away in
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  a mad and unreasoning haste, that I should never reach the wonderful world within
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  a world, that there in that thick gloom we must lay our bodies and
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  bones, or thought I may not the learned master of masters don fun have
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  made an error himself, and holding not the idea that the pipe of Polypmus's
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  funnel was large enough to admit the passage of a man's body. In my
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  almost frenzy, I advanced to the mouth of the pipe, and, lowering
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  myself into it, let my body sink as far as it would. It
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  caught at the shoulders, and after a careful examination, I was forced to
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  reach the brain racking conclusion that my faithful bulgar and I had traveled our last
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  mile together. There was nothing for us to do but to lie down and
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  die, lie down and die never. I had noticed, in making the
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  descent into the Giant's well, that its side had much the appearance of being
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  walled around by blocks of stone with bulgar strap to my back, I would
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  slowly climb up from shelf to shelf until my strength failed me, and then
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  I would wait until I thought old Juliana had come back together herbs, and
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  possibly I might make her hear me. In my despair, I sighed and
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  clutched my own arms, and as I did so, one of my hands
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  came into contact with something cold and slippery, having the feel of tallow.
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  Taking a pinch of the substance between my thumb and finger, I rubbed it
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  thoughtfully for a moment, and then a ray of hope broke through the awful
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  gloom that enshrouded me so piteously. It was black lead. There could be
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  no doubt of it. It had made its way through a crack or crevice
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  in Polyphemus's funnel, and I had rubbed it off in sliding down the side.
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  With this greasy material to rub on the inside of the pipe to the
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  funnel, and also to besmear myself with. Mayhap I might yet slip through
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  into the world within a world. At any rate, I determined to make
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  the trial, even if I left some of my skin on the flinty rock
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  in order to collect my thoughts thoroughly, and that I might proceed step by
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  step in that systematic order so characteristic of all my wonderful exploits. I sat
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  down, and putting my arm around dear Bulgar's neck and drawing him up against
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  me. I communed with myself for a good half hour. Then all was
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  in readiness for action. And to prove to you, dear friends, how
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  careful Bulgar was not to interrupt my train of thought, I have to report
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  to you that although a small animal of the rat family came out from a
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  crevice in the rock while I sat there, thinking as I could see by
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  the light of my tiny wax taper, and had the temerity first to sniff
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  at Bulgar's tail and then to give it a playful nip. Yet the sagacious
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  animal never budged a hair's breath. Mind hath ordered. Now let hands obey,
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  I exclaimed, as I sprang up and began stripping off my outer garments.
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  This done, I clambered up on the side of the funnel and began
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  to collect a supply of the black lead, which I deposited near the opening
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  of the pipe. The next thing to do was to get Bulgar through the
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  pipe ahead of me. To this end, I tied him up in my
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  clothing bag fashion and began to lower away. After paying out sixty five or
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  seventy feet of line, he struck bottom, and by his loud barking,
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  gave me to understand that it was all rigid that I might make the descent
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  myself. Upon hearing his voice, I gave the line a few sharp tugs.
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  He was not so slow to comprehend my meaning, and in a moment
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  or so had not only scrambled out of the bag himself, but pulled my
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  clothing loose so that I might draw the line up again. My next step
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  was to contrive a way to weight myself when the moment arrived to begin of
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  the descent, for I felt sure that I never should be able to arrange
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  it so as to slip through the pipe unless something was pulling at my heels.
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  Cutting off about ten feet of the rope, I made fast one end
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  of the piece to a long piece of rock weighing about a hundred pounds.
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  This I laid near the mouth of the pipe, ready for use. But
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  now came the most difficult thing of all. It was to draw my shoulders
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  in on my breast and lash them securely in that position, by which plan
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  I expected to reduce my width in at least two good inches. These two
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  inches thus gained, or rather lost, might be the means by which I
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  would be able to slip through the pipe of Polypmus's funnel and reach the vast
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  underground passage leading to the world within a world. Putting a noose around my
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  chest just below my collar bone, I drew my shoulders in as tight as
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  I could bear, and changed the slip knot into a hard one. Then,
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  having made the other into the line fast to the side of the funnel,
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  I proceeded to wind myself up, as the housewives often do, a
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  big sausage to keep it from bursting. This done, I set about rolling
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  in the black lead until I was thoroughly smeared with it. There was now
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  but one thing more to do before dropping myself into the pipe, and that
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  was to make fast the weight to my feet. It was no easy task,
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  wound up as I was with my arms lashed down against my body,
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  but by the use of slip knots, I finally accomplished the feat and,
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  sitting down, put my legs into the pipe and drew a long breath,
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  for I felt as if I was skewered up in a strait jacket. Bending
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  down, I called out to Bulgar. He answered with a yelp of joy
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  that brought fresh vigor to my heart. Now was come the supreme moment,
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  which was to witness success or failure? Failure? Oh, what a dread
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  word is that? And yet how often must human lips pronounce it? And
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  in so doing breathe out the sigh in which it ends. Quickly lowering the
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  weight, I wriggled off the edge of the opening and straightened myself out as
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  I slipped into the pipe. Had I stopped it like a cork? Or
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  was I moving? Yes? Down, down, gently, slowly, noiselessly,
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  I went slipping through the pipe to Polyphemus's funnel. What did I care
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  how that weight caused the line to cut into my ankles. I was moving.
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  I was drawing nearer and nearer to Bulgar, whose joyous spark I could
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  hear now, and then nearer to the inner gates of the world within a
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  world. But woe is me? I suddenly stopped, and, in spite
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  of all my efforts to start again, by twisting, turning, and shaking
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  my body. It refused to sink another inch, and there I stick,
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  Oh, bulgar, bulgar, I moan, faithful friend, if thou couldst
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  but reach me, one tug from thee might save thy little master. In
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  a sort of wild and desperate way. I now began to feel about me
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  as well as I could with my hands wedged in so close to my sides.
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  But in a moment or so I had discovered the cause of my coming
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  to such a sudden standstill. I had struck a portion of the pipe that
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  had a thread to it, like that which encircles a bolt of iron and
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  makes a screw of it. And the thought came to me that if I
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  could only succeed in giving a revolving motion to my body, I would,
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  with every turn twist myself further down toward the end of the pipe. I
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  could feel that my knuckles and finger tips were being bruised and lacerated by this
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  arduous work. But worft cared I for the keen pain that darted from hands
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  to wrists and wrists to elbows. It was like twisting a screw slowly through
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  a long nut, only the thread in this case was on the knut and
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  the little grows in the screw, and that screw was my poor bruise little
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  body. All of a sudden, by the swinging of the weight, I
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  could tell that it had passed out at the lower end of the pipe.
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  It was pulling cruelly hard on my tender ankles, but I could twist myself
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  no more. My strength was gone. I was at the point of swooning
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  when I heard Bulgar utter a loud yelp, And the next instant there was
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  such a strong tug at my ankle, so I sent forth a groan.
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  But that hug saved me. It was Bulgar who had leaped into the air,
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  and catching the rope in his teeth, had dragged his little master out
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  of the pipe of Polyphemus's tunnel. We all fell into the same heap,
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  Bulger and I and the weight fully ten feet and very serious might have been
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  the consequences for me had my fall not been broken by my striking on the
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  pile of my clothing placed directly under the opening. And dear friends, if
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  you talked until the crack of doom, you could not make me believe that
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  my four footed brother hadn't placed those clothes there to catch me. They weren't
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  thrown higglely piggledy into a heap, either, but were laid one upon the
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  other, the heaviest at the bottom. Having unwound myself and lighted one of
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  my wax tapers, I made haste to cast away the undergarment with its coating
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  of black lead, and resume my clothing. Then, stooping down, I
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  made anigas damination of the floor. It was composed of huge blocks of marble
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  of various colors, polished almost as smooth as if the hand of man had
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  brought the work. And then I knew that I was on Nature's marble highway
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  leading to the cities of the underworld, which don Fum had mentioned in his
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  book. And I remembered too that he had spoken of Nature's mighty mosaics,
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  huge fantastic figures on the walls of these lofty corridors, made up of various
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  colored blocks and fragments, laid one upon the other, as if with design,
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  and not by the wild, tempestuous whims of upbursting forces thousands of years
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  ago, when the Earth was in its mad and wayward youth. After a
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  rest of several hours, during which I nursed my torn hands and bruised fingers.
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  Bulgar and I were up and off again along this broad and glorious marble
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  highway. Strange to say, it was not the inky darkness of the ordinary
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  cavern which filled these magnificent chambers through which the marble Highway went winding in still
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  lately and massive grandeur. Far from it. The gloom was tempered by a
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  faint glow that met us on the way, Ever, and anon like a
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  ray of twilight gone astray. Anyway, Bulgar, I noticed, could see
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  perfectly well, so tying a bit of twine to his collar, I sent
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  him on ahead, convinced that I could have no surer guide. At times
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  our path would be lighted up for an instant by the bursting out of a
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  little tongue of flame, either on the sides or from the roof of the
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  gallery. I was puzzled for quite a while to tell what it proceeded from,
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  but at last I caught sight of the source, or rather the maker,
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  of this welcome illumination. It proceeded from a lizard like animal, which,
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  by suddenly uncoiling its tail, had the power to emit this extremely bright
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  flesh of phosphorescent light, and in so doing he made a sharp crack for
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  all the world like the noise of an electric spark. Bulgar was delighted with
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  this performance, and on one occasion, not being able to control his feelings,
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  he uttered a sharp burke, whereupon apparently ten thousand of these little torch
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  bearers snapped their tails at me at the same instant, and filled the vast
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  place with a flash of light of almost lightning like intensity. Vulgar was so
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  frightened by the result of his applause that he took good care to keep quiet
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  after this end of chapter six